Tuesday 1st April 1975

Potter Manor, 08:30

James sighed heavily as he toyed with his fork. His parents exchanged concerned glances over his head.

"Jimmy? Are you okay?"

"I'm good..."

That just worried them more. Euphemia reached over to press a hand on his forehead but he leaned away from her.

"I'm not sick."

That didn't really help as he still didn't look happy or anything.

"Something's the matter," Fleamont said, having lost a silent battle of will with his wife. "You're not acting yourself at all."

James sighed again and then gave his parents a small smile in an attempt to reassure them.

"It's just it's April Fools and normally we do something big at school," James explained. "We have a reputation for it."

"And you're missing it this year," Fleamont finished with a small smile.

"Yeah. Stupid Easter."

"You could pull a prank at home?" Euphemia suggested.

James shook his head dolefully. "It wouldn't be the same."

McKinnon Farm, 11:00

Ciaran ran past his parents in the kitchen and out the back door, shouting a "Hi mum and dad, bye mum and dad!" as he went by.

"No running!" Tierney called after him, taking a sip of his tea.

Of course, Ciaran didn't hear him as he was already outside.

The two McKinnon parents didn't get a chance to settle before another one of their children thundered past.

"Ciaran, I am going to kill you!" Marlene bellowed, rushing past.

"No runni-" her mother tried but Marlene was out the back, the door slamming behind her, before she could finish. The whole house seemed to shake.

The two of them looked at each other and shook their heads before settling back down to drink their tea. They weren't going to get involved with whatever that was. They were well aware of how strange their children were and no one was unconscious or bleeding so there wasn't really any cause for concern.

Tierney froze as the mug touched his lips.

"Was Marlene's face blue?"

A very unmanly and high-pitched shriek came from outside, along with a lot of cursing. From both children.

Mary McKinnon swung the window open and stuck her head out of it.

"Language!" she scolded.

"Sorry, ma!" came two unrepentant voices.

Thursday 3rd April 1975

Shacklebolt Flat, 19:00

"Urghhh." Kingsley groaned, flopping on his bed and curling up into the foetal position.

There was no way he was going to be able to move any time soon. Just no way. It would be a very bad idea unless someone wanted him to be sick. Which he would really rather not. He let loose another groan again, wishing it would make him feel better but it didn't.

"That's what you get for having a chocolate eating competition," dad said unsympathetically from the doorway.

He had come up to check on Kingsley.

"I won," Hayden said weakly, poking his head around the door.

"Thought it would be a good way to get rid of all the Easter chocolate," Kingsley felt like he had to explain.

Suddenly Hayden disappeared and the sound of the bathroom door being flung open was heard. It was soon followed by gagging and groaning. Kingsley winced and put his pillow over his ears, he did not need to hear that or else his stomach would think to follow suit. Even though that sounded like a really good idea.

Hayden threw up again, quite violently this time from the sounds of things.

"I hope he got it into the toilet," dad muttered.

More retching. Somehow even more violent.

"I'm going to check on him." Dad looked at him and shook his head.

"Definitely not a good idea."

Sunday 6th April 1975

Hogwarts Express, 11:00

Lily gave her parents a final wave as the train pulled away from the station. Back to Hogwarts she went. She was always conflicted after the holidays; sure, it was a bit sad leaving her parents again but she also couldn't wait to go back to school. Where everything was normal. Yes, a school where you could perform magic was definitely normal to her now, more so than home if you could believe that.

Well, maybe it wasn't so hard to believe. She did spend nine months of the year at Hogwarts. That was three quarters of her life since she was eleven. Of course, that meant Hogwarts was going to feel more familiar to her, especially when she didn't have to hide a part of herself at Hogwarts. Which was nice.

"I'm going to see if I can find Tonks," Chryssie said after making sure her trunk was secure on the overhead rack.

"Huh? Okay," Lily said, shaking her head to get herself out of her thoughts.

"Will you be okay?"

"Yeah, Marlene should be on the train somewhere."

Lots of students had gone home this year for Easter. More so than usual so the school provided the train for getting to and from. Somehow, it wasn't as exciting as it was in September. Probably because she knew that all that was ahead of them was their end of year exams and those were never fun.

"Cool," Chryssie said with a grin. "I'm going to head on then."

Lily waved at her as she disappeared down the carriage. She should probably do the same thing if she wanted to find her own friend.

"Lily!"

A small blur tackled her into a rib-crushing hug. Speak of the Irish Devil...

Wednesday 9th April 1975

Entrance Hall, 12:30

Severus frowned as he made his way into the Great Hall, stomach rumbling. He gave an absent-minded "Bye" to Lily, who inexplicably left him with a huff.

Whatever, she would probably okay the next time he saw her. Girls tended to be like that and apparently Lily wasn't immune to it. She would be fine. He had other things to think about.

Like the past Potions lesson. Which had just been annoying and not at all fun like it normally was. And it was all down to the Marauders. Because of course it was. Well, just one of them this time. Potter. It was always Potter.

It just wasn't fair. Potter was supposed to be gifted at Transfiguration so he shouldn't be getting such high marks in Potions as well. Severus was much better and inventive at them. He should be top of the class for each assignment. He shouldn't have to share that with Potter and he supposed Lily as well. It just wasn't fair. Potter was just showing off. As usual.

But no one seemed to care. They liked it when he showed off - whether it was about his Quidditch skills or his stupid pranking ability or his schoolwork. They basically cheered when Potter did so. Not so when Severus did. He got labelled a swot or too eager or even accused of showing off- even if he was much better at whatever it was than someone else. It wasn't fair! Certain rules for some and different for others. Everywhere was the same.

It wasn't fair!

Saturday 12th April 1975

Quidditch Pitch, 17:00

"Good practice, everyone!" the team got congratulated as they landed.

Sirius wrestled a bludger into its case feeling very satisfied. It really had been a good practice. He had managed to master the backhanded technique on his weak side and James had somehow managed to execute four barrel rolls in a row and score a goal at the end of it. James was pretty dizzy and had flown around rather drunkenly at the end of it but he had done it!

He was ready to get these sweat soaked robes off him (disgusting, Sirius knew) and jump into the shower. A hot one. Maybe back up in the Gryffindor dorms because he still really wasn't used to this showering out in the open nonsense. It wasn't that he was shy but it was just weird to him even though no one else seemed to think so. Anyway, there was enough mud splattered on him that he could suck it up and use the showers in the changing rooms. He did not want it drying on him, it made him itch. And smell bad. And Sirius Black did not smell bad.

Soon they were all showered off and somewhat clean again. Making their way back to the castle Sirius thought that it was rather pointless them drying off since the rain just soaked them again. He was going to have to fix his hair all over again.

Suddenly, someone barged into them, obviously not looking where they were going because of the wind and rain that was really starting to pick up.

"Get out of my way, Black," Snape snapped at them, despite the fact he had bumped into him and James.

Before Sirius could retort, the other boy had stomped off. Huh.

"Is it just me or does Snape seem grumpier towards us recently?" Sirius asked as he watched the figure head to the treeline of Forbidden Forest.

Sure, they directed a few more pranks at him but that's because he always gave them such a good reaction. And he always shot a spell at them in return. The Slytherin had gotten sneakier about it too - did it where teachers couldn't catch him our unlike in previous years. Anyway, he was really annoying so he deserved it in Sirius' opinion.

"Eh, he's always grumpy around us" James dismissed.

Sirius supposed James had a point. They weren't exactly on best terms with the Slytherin.

"What do you think he's doing?"

James shrugged and then grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "Who knows but he'll be doing it in Gryffindor colours."

With a quick flick of his wand, the back of Snape's robes changed to have red and gold stripes. Much better than the normal school ones. Sirius grinned broadly at James and they laughed all the way back to the castle.

Sunday 13th April 1975

Hufflepuff Basement, 16:00

Dora ran down the corridors in the basement, tears blurring her vision. She stumbled slightly but thankfully didn't fall as she just wanted to get as far away as possible. Stumbling and falling flat on her face would definitely not help that. She ran and ran, trying to put as much distance between her and the Hufflepuff Common Room as possible. She didn't want to be anywhere near it.

Why did she not want to be in her own House? The House of the hard-working, the just and the loyal? Well, they were neither of those things to her. Well, maybe the hardworking. They certainly worked hard enough to tease her.

That's what they had been doing. Teasing her. Making fun of her. Just being all around mean. Dora couldn't stand it. Okay, maybe it hadn't been her whole house but enough of them! And no one did anything to help her either! They just ignored the taunts or nodded along. Dora didn't know what was worse!

Either way she didn't want to hear or see them anymore. Didn't want them to see her cry. Hence the running without looking where she was going. It didn't matter where she was going as long as she was away from them.

Why was everyone so mean? She hadn't been doing anything wrong, certainly not trying to show off like they claimed. She just wanted to see what she could do. It hadn't been hurting anyone.

But no, apparently some people took offence to her abilities. Even after all this time! She had been at Hogwarts for three years now, surely her House would be used to her by now? It really wasn't a big deal.

They all thought so. Well, that's what the nasty words directed at her were all about. She hated being called a show off or a mutt (because apparently all taunts had to eventually involve her parentage) which was just really awful. Possibly the worst.

Or was the claim that "certain people had it right, getting rid of all the mudbloods and the misfits" that really got to her. She wasn't a misfit, she wasn't! She was just Tonks. The girl with the funny name and the multicoloured hair. She was nothing to get worked up over.

Finally, she came to a stop. She just couldn't run anymore, her legs felt like lead. Thankfully, this corridor seemed to be empty so there was no one to give her weird looks for throwing herself onto the floor. She had had enough of those today.

So that's what she did. Well, not literally throwing herself on the floor - that would hurt. But Dora did basically collapse onto it. Look, who knew how far she had run, okay?

Pulling her knees to her chest, Dora let her head rest against them and let the tears come. She had been holding an awful lot of them back. A lot. She was going to have a weird wet patch on her knees now but she really couldn't bring herself to care. Not even a little bit.

She didn't care about anything except for those comments directed at her. They were just horrible. Why did people say things like that? Why did they want to hurt people?

Pathetic

Stupid

Freak

Attention whore

Mudblood

Weirdo

Freak

Idiot

Each of those were like a stab to her heart. Oh, Dora knew she shouldn't get thicker skin, just ignore all the comments. They were childish, not worth listening to, not true. Adults always said things like that. But. But what if they were true? Lots of people were saying those things to her, not just the normal mean ones. So maybe they were true? It had to mean something of so many people were saying them, didn't it?

Oh, she didn't know. Because she was stupid. Someone smarter could figure out if it was true or not but she couldn't. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She had tried to bang her head against the wall with each iteration but that hurt too much so she stopped after the first. See? She was so stupid that she banged her head off walls!

Dora didn't know how long she just sat there but then her stomach was rumbling and her dried up tear tracks felt tight against her face. Huh. Must be time for dinner. With a sigh, she looked up the corridor and shook her head. She didn't want to go up to the Great Hall and face anyone. She just couldn't. Which sucked. Dora knew she shouldn't let people get to her like this but she just couldn't help it. Words hurt no matter what people say. They hurt a lot. And she was still hurting.

But also hungry. Very hungry in fact. And it was dinner. Her stomach rumbled again, this time even louder. But she needed food. And soon, preferably.

She looked around the corridor she had ended up in, finally taking it in properly. Hmm, this looked slightly familiar. A glance down the corridor verified her suspicions.

Yep, the Kitchens were down this way...

Wednesday 16th April 1975

Hogwarts Grounds, 17:00

You know what? James pulled his robes over his head in an attempt to give himself a bit of shelter, he took back what he said about not being able to wait for Spring. Spring was rubbish as well. At least the weather was. Rain, rain and more rain. The flowers next month better be fantastic after all the rubbish weather they'd been having. The Quidditch Pitch hadn't even started to dry out yet which meant practices were just a mess. He always ended up with mud splattered up past his knees after every practice. Not a good look at all.

It wasn't even useful rain in his opinion. No thunder and lightning accompanied it like they needed. Surely, they wouldn't have to wait years like that book said they would? James didn't think he'd be able to stick it. He was all about immediate results and this whole Animagus thing was doing the complete opposite. It was really starting to try his patience now.

They were so close to the end. So close. All they needed was a stupid storm. Which was apparently too much to ask for. So stupid. How hard was it for the weather to give them a little bit of thunder paired with some really good lightening?

Of course, the weather didn't do any of that. It was like it was trying to spite them. If it was going to storm it should jolly well just do it. None of these constant days of rain. Give them some bangs and crashes and jagged lightening and everything would be good. More than good actually.

Because then they would all be Animagi and be able to help Remus and be all sorts of cool. Mainly so they could help Remus, of course. That and James really wanted to know what he was going to be. A lion maybe? Or what if he was a hawk, hawks were cool. Though, would he know how to fly? Would he have to teach himself? How did you teach yourself to fly? But then maybe he wouldn't have wings. Maybe he would be a wolf. How would werewolves react around wolves? Were they basically the same? Did they act the same? Would they know the difference? A wolf would be cool. They were so fierce and amazing looking. No one messed with a wolf.

Finally, James had made it inside and could put his cloak back on as opposed to having it over his head. Yuck, inside the sleeves were all wet. He grimaced.

If he was a wolf, he would be able to just shake himself dry.

Friday 18th April 1975

Hagrid's Hut, 16:00

'Shhhluck!'

Chryssie grumbled something that was definitely not fit for any adults' ears which made her sister give her a disapproving look. Chryssie really didn't care at the moment because she was somewhat preoccupied with the fact that her foot kept on getting stuck in the mud. Or rather, as she liked to put it, the ground was trying to steal her shoe.

"Tell me again why we're out here in the cold and damp when we could be inside literally by roaring fires?" she asked in a disgruntled tone.

"We're going to visit Hagrid," Lily said far too cheerfully for such a chilly April day.

It had just been pretending to be Spring the last week or so, now it was freezing again. Chryssie really hated being in Scotland sometimes. Especially in Winter and sort-of Spring. Everything was just so cold and windy and wet. Yuck. She couldn't wait for Spring to come properly.

That way she could actually enjoy being outside again. Something that she wasn't doing right now. In fact, she wouldn't be out at all if she had any choice in the matter, which she didn't considering Lily dragged her out here.

"Don't you usually come down here with Sev or Marlene?"

You know, her best friends? Who were strangely absent.

"I just thought it would be nice of us to spend some time together. Just you and me."

Oh, she just had to play the sister card, didn't she? That was a low blow. And Chryssie supposed that she was right. Slightly. Younger sibling prerogative- older siblings could never be completely right.

"Oh fine," she grumbled, even though she hadn't really been going to do anything different.

She did like Hagrid after all, who didn't like Hagrid?

Thursday 24th April 1975

Gryffindor Common Room, 08:30

Lily watched as the rain came down heavily. Actually, heavily was far too mild a word. It was coming down in sheets as the wind blew as hard as it could and thunder rumbled in the distance. She hadn't seen any lightening yet but she was sure it was on its way.

All morning classes that were scheduled for outside had been cancelled today because of the storm. Which really only meant Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Marlene was lucky enough to be taking both so she had no classes this morning. Lily, however, was going to have to attend Spellcrafting at eleven. Which was okay because it really was interesting but she'd rather have the free period instead. Who wouldn't? Except maybe the Ravenclaws...

Even with the fire flickering happily in the fireplace, the Common Room was still so dark because of the clouds. Not even a bit of light from the sun was coming through. It was kind of spooky. Creepy even. More Hallowe'en weather than Spring.

Lily shivered even though she was toasty warm. She didn't like it. There was an odd sort of ominous feeling about this sort of weather. Like something was going to happen and it wasn't going to be good. Or maybe she was just cold. The temperature had seemed to have dropped several degrees. Storms were definitely not something she enjoyed; did anyone love them?

"Grandad would have loved this," Marlene said happily.

Lily gave her an odd look.

"He's a stormcaller, you see."

She really didn't see. Before she could ask what on earth a stormcaller was, lightning flashed across the sky, briefly lighting up the whole room. Lily felt like she had been momentarily been blinded. There were gasps all around her and some cries of shock.

Instinctively, she started counting, "One, one thousand, two, one tho-"

A very loud rumble of thunder came before she managed to get to two wow. Very close. Was the Forbidden Forest spelled against getting set on fire?

Another rumbling noise came but this time it came from inside. The Marauders (minus one as Remus was sick today) came thundering past her very urgently.

Fantastic. They were probably, no, definitely up to no good. Frankly, she didn't want to know.

"Go, go go!" Sirius urged as he brought up the rear of their little stampede.

They could only go so fast as they were all cradling their vials like they were something precious, which they were. Obviously.

"Where are we going?" Peter asked through a gasping breath.

"Anywhere," Sirius said, really not caring as long as they were away from people quickly.

"Abandoned classroom," James said, turning down a corridor that they must have passed hundreds of times. "In here!"

Soon they had all piled into the nearest, very dusty classroom. Seriously, did the Elves not clean these things? All the abandoned classrooms they had come across had always been really grubby. And that was being generous about some of them.

"Do we have this room on our map?" Peter asked, looking around.

"Who cares right now," Sirius said impatiently.

Now was not the time to be talking about their map! It was Animagus time. Right now!

"Come on!" he whined.

James laughed at him but held his vial out. "Let's see if this worked."

They all just stood there, holding their vials, none of them wanting to be the first to check. What if it had all gone wrong? What if two got it right and one was wrong? That person would be behind. Sirius prayed that that wasn't going to be the case or if it was, he wasn't one of them.

"Peter, open yours," James said eagerly.

Peter frowned and looked down at his vial before shaking his head.

"You go first."

"I don't want to!"

"Well, neither do I!"

"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" Sirius said in exasperation. "I'll do it."

With a yank, the cork came off and immediately flew off into the depths of the room. Sirius didn't care, he was more than a little bit preoccupied with the blood red liquid in the vial he had just removed it from.

"I did it! I did it right!" he cheered.

Peter and James looked at each other before doing the same thing.

'Pop!' 'Pop!'

No one cared about where the corks went, especially when there was cheering to be done. Each of the three vials had identical, blood red liquid in it. A mouthful to be exact.

"What exactly is a mouthful?" James asked, peering into his vial.

"Does it matter?" Sirius asked, even more impatiently - if that was possible. "Let's do this before the storm is over!"

As if it heard them, lightening flashed again, casting really spooky shadows across the room. They all jumped and looked around.

"Now," James agreed.

They each looked down at their vials, none of them making any move to drink out of it.

"All together or one by one?" Sirius asked, looking between his friends and the potion.

It was right there, the correct colour and everything! They all did it right! Sirius felt like he should cheer or something. No, he wanted to drink it. Or someone to drink it.

"All together," James decided. "I wouldn't be able to wait "

"On three," Sirius said, clutching his vial a little bit tighter. "One."

"Two," Peter said quickly, his hand trembling in his excitement.

"Three," James declared.

James waited until all three of them had their wands pointed at their hearts, Sirius felt like he didn't have a good grip on his (sweaty hands), and then nodded. Finally.

Three voices, only slightly out of sync, chanted, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus."

Then they all swung the contents of their vials into their mouths.

It was very sweet was Sirius' last thought before clutching at his chest. The books had not been kidding about the fiery pain. If anything, they had understated it. It hurt, like something was getting ripped out of his chest. All Sirius was aware of was the other gasps that came from James and Peter.

Then the intense double heartbeat came. Oh wow. Wow. Words could not describe that feeling. Not that he would be able to find them as it lasted all of a split second before his mind was consumed by the extremely weird feeling coming from, well, his mind.

Something shifted inside of him and the strangest (and not in a good way) feeling came over him, like he was being pulled and pushed all at once.

Unaware of what else was happening around him, Sirius dropped to his knees and started to pant (and drool as well apparently though they wouldn't discover that until later).

Then suddenly it was all over. Huh. That definitely hadn't been what he had been expecting. Sirius thought there would be something... more to it?

His eyes were closed. When had he closed his eyes? So, he opened them and almost immediately regretted it. There was just so much to see. Like, a lot. His eyes snapped shut instinctively as his brain tried to process what was going on.

Much more slowly, he opened his eyes again. That was a bit better though there was still a lot to take in. By sight and by smell. Wow, there were a lot of smells in here. The first thing he noticed was the fact he could now see under the tables instead of over them. So, he was small? Sort of? He looked down to see how close to the ground he was. Not very.

Hey, he had paws! Paws! The paws moved and one lifted up towards his face. Those were his paws. He was moving them!

Paws. That meant a cat or a dog of some sort, right? He lifted his right paw and almost immediately toppled over. Right, his balance was all different now.

There was a huffing noise from behind him so he scrambled around in the most ungainly fashion ever (and ended up on his stomach but whatever) and came face to face with a... a deer? Huh. Was that Peter or James? How were they supposed to tell? He cooked his head to one side and opened his mouth to speak.

"Woof!"

The noise that came from him made him jump back and whoever was in front of him jump back. The James-or-Peter deer bumped into desks and upended a chair. Well, at least he knew what animal he was some sort of dog. He looked down on himself, a dog with black fur and big paws. Sirius woofed again and felt something shake. Or wag, rather. He had a tail!

A frightened squeaking noise came from the floor. A mouse? No, a rat. Was that a James-Peter rat or just a rat? Sirius tried to move closer to the creature and he did - just very clumsily. This was going to take some getting used to.

The rat didn't move so he assumed it was James or Peter. Ha! One of them was a rat! Sirius gave himself a pleased shake and it felt so good. There seemed to be a lot of him to shake.

Something moved behind him. It was one of the many desks in this room. They probably should have shoved those out of the way before they did this but oh well. He went over and gave them a sniff. Yuck. Why was there so much gum under here? Who even did that? This was supposed to be a high-class boarding school.

Speaking of school, they still had to do that today. Which was a pity. Being a dog just felt right. How was he supposed to turn back into a human anyway? Oh yeah, just visualise yourself.

So that's what Sirius did. And James and Peter seemed to have the same idea as well.

One by one each of them popped back into existence. Peter came from the rat and James from the deer. Peter was patting himself down.

"You don't still have a tail, Pete," James reassured him.

"I don't? That's good," Peter said in relief. "But I was making sure I had all my clothes back on."

They all had a good laugh at that and then stood around grinning like idiots. They had done it! They were Animagi!

"You're a rat!" James cheered, pointing at Peter who blushed bright red. "All tiny and squeaky!"

"Well, Sirius is a monster of a dog," Peter retorted. "Who can't even walk right."

"And you," Sirius pointed at James. "Are some gangly deer who can't even stand up right never mind walk."

"We're all awesome," James decided.

Now that was something that was definitely true.

"Just wait until we show Remus!"

He wouldn't believe what they had just managed to do! It had really happened, they were Animagi!

The full moon was tomorrow night and Remus had felt so awful today that he had voluntarily turned himself into Madam Pomfrey. Which had really worried them bit the medi-witch had shooed them out even though they knew what was wrong with him. No go, she insisted he needed his rest and had banished them. They were going to sneak down this evening under the Invisibility Cloak. Now they actually had something to tell him.

"Maybe we could sneak down now?" Sirius suggested.

"Can't," Peter said, looking at his watch. "We're going to be late for our next class!"